The car ride home was tense and awkward. The silence was heavy and even the dull cracking of the ancient radio didn’t do anything to calm my nerves. Mother’s lips were pursed in a tight line, her jaw clenched. I could see she was trying to hold back her anger while Mikey in the car, but I just knew she was going to rip me a new one as soon as we were alone.

What seemed like hours later, we pulled up into the drive. Mikey was out of the door and in the house before our mother even cut off the engine. The woman herself puffed her hair up in the mirror and shot me a glare when she caught me looking.

“Get. Inside.” She sneered through gritted teeth.

I scampered out of the door and into the house. I knew mom was scary, heck, Mikey and I had seen grown men cry when she’d finished yelling. But I’ve never been scared of her, not until now.

I winced when the door slammed shut with more force than necessary, and at every click of her high heels. I shot a pleading look at my brother as she grew near, but he just shrugged and lugged a pile of DVD’s to his room.

She took a deep breath as she entered the room. “What the fuck do you think you were doing?!”

“Mom, I-“

“No Gerard!” she interrupts me, “You listen to me! Got it?”

I nodded dumbly and awkwardly wrung my hands out in front of me.

“What on Earth made you think it was a good idea to date your teacher? The thrill? What did that poor man ever do to deserve this? It’s illegal! He could go to prison!”

I kept my head down and scuffed the toe of my shoe against a knot in the floorboards.

“Wait-“ she hesitated, her eyes melting from anger to compassion “did he make you do this? Did he pressure you? Bribe you into sleeping with him to get your grades up?”

I stared at her in horror. How could she even think like that? He’d been here for Christ sake. She knows how much I like Frank. “No! None of those things! We love each other!”

She was silent for a moment, before she straightened her back and tucked an out-of-place hair behind her ear. “I don’t want you to ever see that man again. That is, if he doesn’t go to prison for a long, long time,”

Mikey watched as our mother left then tiptoed down from his place on the stairs and pulled me into his arms as my body was over-run with sobs.

It was pretty much guaranteed that by the time I got to school, almost everyone would know of my relationship. I knew the day was going to be bad, but I couldn’t even have imagined it would be this bad.

Mikey and I were barely through the school gates before the whispers and the stares started. Everyone was pointing and muttering to their friends as we walked up the pathway towards the main school building. As soon as I caught sight of one of Mikey's friends in his year, I shooed him off. I didn’t want him to have to endure my pain anymore than he already has in this short space of time.

None of my friends were in my first two classes so I had no-one to distract me from the people around me. As soon as I walked through the door, the teacher gave me a look of distain and murmured ‘faggot’ under her breath. The students shamelessly stared throughout the lesson and one of the jocks threw a paper airplane decorated in death threats at me.

After spending gym class hidden behind a Stephen king novel in the library, I was slightly apprehensive to go to my science class. I hadn’t spoken to Ray since early yesterday morning and I didn’t know if he would still want to associate with me now my secret is out. I knew it was stupid; Ray had known about our relationship from the start and showed nothing but support.

As soon as I entered the room, the chatter stopped. Everyone stared at me with disgust before talking to their friends once more. As I walked to my seat at the back of the class, one of the overly tanned cheerleaders asked her friend how I could even show my face here again, to which she replied that she didn’t know and that I was a freak of nature. I tried not to let the hurt show.

“Gerard!” Ray cried once he’d noticed my presence. I was confused as to how he didn’t notice me before, it’s not like the others hadn’t made it obvious I’d arrived. That is, until I spotted the latest guitar magazine on his desk. The world could be ending while he was reading it and Ray wouldn’t even know.

“I didn’t think you were going to show,”

“Mom made me,” I murmured, scratching the back of my neck awkwardly.

I was surprised when Ray enveloped me in his arms but quickly recovered and hugged him back.

“I wouldn’t touch him if I were you, Toro. He’ll give you his gay,” Ryan sneered from across the classroom. Ray flipped him off and ushered me back to our desk.

Five minutes later, the headmistress walked in with an aging man trailing behind her. It hurt when I realised that this was our new teacher, it made it all the more real that this was really happening and Frank wasn’t coming back.

“Good morning class,” the headmistress addressed us in her monotonous voice, “this is Mr. Williams and he will be your new science teacher for the rest of the year. Now, he is new to this school and you will treat him with the respect he deserves.” She didn’t wait for a reply before she turned on her heel and exited the room. The new teacher gave us a curt nod and started to take stacks of test papers out of his briefcase.

“Nice one, faggot. Just because you can’t keep your filthy hands to yourself we get stuck with this old fart of a teacher,” Ryan spat once the teachers back was turned, making me shrink into my seat.